Last night, over 1,000 business leaders joined Greater Louisville Inc., the Metro Chamber of Commerce, for its Annual Meeting presented by Baird at the Kentucky International Convention Center. The event is the region’s largest annual convening of business leaders and this year’s meeting focused on how businesses can attract, retain, and develop degreed and non-degreed talent.“Our business community is at an important turning point as we prevail from more than two years of pandemic-related economic uncertainty and face new obstacles like a growing shortage of talent,” said Sarah Davasher-Wisdom, president and CEO of GLI. “Annual Meeting is a unique opportunity to get top business, elected, and community leaders in one room to dive into how we can make our region stronger in the year ahead. I am confident all attendees left with renewed energy and creative ideas to address talent shortages in their businesses and throughout our region.”The Silver Fleur-de-Lis awards are a signature part of Annual Meeting presented by Baird. Each year, the awards recognize local businesses, community members, and leaders, who made outstanding contributions in the past year to make Louisville a better place to live and work. This year’s recipients include:
- Four community minority business incubators and accelerators for their joint contributions: One West’s the Plan Room, AMPED’S Russell Tech Incubator, GEDDI’s Just Boss Up Academy, and Old Walnut Street’s Purpose Driven Developer Academy. The award was presented by Dana Johnson, senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion at GLI and leader of GLI’s Power to Prosper Minority Business Accelerator.
- Vincenzo’s for their commitment to downtown Louisville’s hospitality industry. The award was presented by Lance Mann, Assurance Director at Dean Dorton.
- UPS for their role in distributing lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines. Award sponsored by Baptist Health. The award was presented by Gerard Colman, CEO of Baptist Health.
- Jefferson Community Technical College for the launch of the Advanced Manufacturing and Information Technology Center (AMIT). The award was presented by Kent Suiters, executive director of business transformation at GE Appliances.
The event concluded with a keynote fireside chat between Ginnie Carlier, EY Americas Vice Chair – Talent, and Ankur Gopal, CEO of Interapt, a leader in Louisville’s talent space. Carlier has several decades of experience in talent attraction, retention, and development. In her current role, she creates transformative experiences for 80,000 people across 31 countries.
“Between the current workforce transformation, the future of work and diversity, equity and inclusion priorities, I believe talent is going to be at the top of the leadership agenda for the long term. This moment is really a great opportunity for companies to rethink who they are, how they operate and how they support their people,” said Carlier.Participants also experienced exclusive access to a special performance of the Louisville Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty, top-tier networking with local leaders, and special updates from GLI leadership.“GLI’s Annual Meeting is a unique opportunity for the business community to come together to celebrate our successes and rally around ways we can take our economy and community to the next level.” said Purna Veer, chair of GLI’s board of directors and founder of V-Soft Consulting. “As we heard last night, thoughtful and inclusive talent strategies are the foundation for successful economic development. I am optimistic our attendees will apply what they learned to grow their businesses and better our entire community.”
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